Carey v. Chessie Computer Services11/14/2001
mply with the 1996 Commission decision granting appellant temporary total disability benefits and, if so, whether they should be penalized for failing to comply with that award. In its decision, dated January 18, 2000, the Commission found that appellees had "failed to pay the Order of the Commission dated November 18, 1996," and that that failure had resulted in an underpayment to appellant of $38,866.28. Consequently, the Commission ordered appellees to pay appellant "an additional 20% percent penalty for non-payment of the award" and an additional attorney's fee of $400.00 to appellant's attorney.
Once again, on February 16, 2000, appellees filed a petition for judicial review in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County. In that petition, appellees claimed that both the November 18, 1996 and the January 18, 2000 decisions of the Commission had "erroneously awarded the Claimant benefits, erroneously awarded attorneys' fees, and erroneously awarded a penalty." In response, appellant filed a partial motion to dismiss seeking dismissal of appellees' request for judicial review of the November 18, 1996 Commission decision. On May 31, 2000, appellees filed a motion for summary judgment.
The day after appellees filed that motion, Judge Turnbull granted appellant's partial motion to dismiss. Then, on June 21, 2000, the Honorable John O. Hennegan, also of the Baltimore County Circuit Court, granted appellees' motion for summary judgment. In granting that motion, Judge Hennegan found that the November 18, 1996 award of the Commission "became of no effect upon the impleader of the Subsequent Injury Fund." He then reversed the Commission's decision of January 18, 2000, and ordered that the matter be remanded to the Commission "for further proceedings including, but not limited to compensability and benefits issues with full participation by all parties, including the Subsequent Injury Fund." Appellant filed a motion for reconsideration and, after that motion was denied, noted this appeal.
DISCUSSION
Appellant contends that Judge Hennegan erred in granting summary judgment in favor of appellees, in declaring that the November 18, 1996 Commission decision was "of no effect," and in reversing the January 18, 2000 Commission decision, which was based on the 1996 decision. To further explain, the 1996 Commission decision had ordered appellees to pay appellant monthly compensation for the temporary total disability she sustained; the 2000 Commission decision that followed ordered appellees to make the payments required by the 1996 decision, which the Commission found they had not done, and penalized them for failing to do so.
Appellant's argument has four components: First, appellant maintains that "there was no case pending before [Judge Hennegan] with respect to the appeal of the decision of the Workers' Compensation Commission dated November 18, 1996" at the time he made his ruling, because Judge Turnbull had previously granted appellant's partial motion to dismiss as to that issue. She therefore argues that Judge Hennegan had no jurisdiction to issue the order in question. Second, appellant asserts that appellees' "appeal of the November 18, 1996 order of the Workers' Compensation Commission was . . . barred by limitations," because that "appeal" was filed "beyond the 30 day period allowed for appeal of a decision of the [Commission]" under Maryland Rule 7-203. Third, appellant contends that the portion of appellees' petition for review that sought review of the Commission's 1996 decision was barred by res judicata, because it "was in effect asking the Circuit Court for Baltimore County to rescind its prior Order of November 13, 1997," which granted summary judgment t
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